Xbox has remained secretive about how many subscribers Game Pass actually has ever since growth of the Netflix-like subscription began to stall. Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the service is down to just 30 million monthly paying customers, a drop of 4 million from 2024.
“The company had projected Game Pass subscriptions would reach around 77 million this year, according to a document revealed during legal proceedings related to the Activision acquisition,” reads the new report. “It currently has about 30 million, a person familiar with the matter said.”
That 77 million figure comes from internal Microsoft documents leaked back during the 2023 FTC trial over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard that revealed the tech giant once had hopes that Game Pass would reach over 100 million subscribers by 2030. That ambitious figure would seemingly be built on the back of a number of studio acquisitions and big game releases, as well as smart deals with third-party publishers.
But by 2024, the company had only reached 34 million subscribers, according to remarks from then-Xbox President Sarah Bond. Since that time, Game Pass has seen multiple price increases and the addition of new Call of Duty entries to the day-and-date library. But things came to a head last fall when Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate to $30 a month ahead of the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
The game ended up being poorly received, however, and churn from the price hike led Game Pass subscriptions to decline overall. Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said earlier this year that the move cost the service “millions of subscribers.” While Microsoft hasn’t shared any specific figures in recent years, a report by Bloomberg claimed that the day-and-date launch of 2024’s Black Ops 6 on Game Pass cost Microsoft roughly $300 million in lost revenue, suggesting the calculus was not panning out even before the price hikes.
As a result, one of new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s first moves after succeeding Phil Spencer was to reduce the monthly price of Game Pass and pull new Call of Duty releases out of the service’s library at launch. Even if that stops the bleeding, it seems like Game Pass has hit a ceiling.
